This is indeed what it seems like. Developers and humans in general have never learned to leave well enough alone after a certain point. They always think they can do better, but when it turns out that this is not the case, going back to a previously working version is something that seems hard to do. Because of ego?

This is something that seems to happen with some many sites and software. Always the tinkering, the messing around with things, presumably for the sake of keeping busy?

Thanks for answering ... I tried putting this negative prompt in. I hope this is the correct manner to put it into a prompt? Placed at the beginning of a prompt (or at the end?)

(negativePrompt:::wrong anatomy, cartoons, cartoon style, extra legs, extra arms, anime, manga, wrong anatomy, bad proportions, duplicate faces, duplicate hairstyle, oversaturated color, amputated limbs, warped anatomy, missing limbs, deformed limbs, distorted body, incomplete body, two heads on one body, unconnected arms, unconnected legs, three legs, three arms, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn feet, poorly drawn face, extra limbs, disfigured, deformed, bad anatomy, low contrast, distorted face, twisted limbs, twisted hands, missing arms, missing legs)

I've made some 10s of thousands of non-cartoonish renders since June of 2025, in the traditional art styles that I prefer and that you think of as 'slop'. That was something no other AI platform could do that I know of. The results were wonderful. No cartoons, no anime, no manga if that was not what you were trying to do. And I wasn't nor ever will.

Cartoon render platforms are everywhere. In the galleries there isn't one image that I have found that has appeal (I stopped looking after a minute or two. They are all the same).

The question remains the same: used to be that the platform allowed rendering of images that were quality-wise miles above other platforms and in truly serious historically significant artistic styles. Why downgrade the quality? Perchance was unique in that ability.

I am not alone in this. That should be apparent from other comments.

And as others have written, if it is a question of finance (as so much is) to get that quality back to how it was, I would be willing to pay. Because it was so unique before this latest version.

When you get totally different results with the same prompt a day or two later, it is NOT a skill issue. It is an issue with consistency and never ending changes and updates. Enough people have commented on how results always tend towards cartoonish looking images, no matter what the prompt. The generator was magnificent from Aug 2025 to jan 2026. Then the update which was a downgrade and it is like wading through molasses to get anything like the previous results. If you want cartoonish, anime, manga or simplistic results, the new version probably doesn't make much difference. But serious artistic imaging, realistic, academic, beaux arts, art deco, bauhaus, representational art is now out of the picture. A real shame.

I'm really sorry, but the generator is degraded. Images tends towards the cartoonish, anime or manga, really junky imaging that can done on any run-of-the-mill AI generator. Used to be before, you could make wonderful artistic images in an academic, Art Deco, vintage, beaux-Arts, representational art style, like Norman Rockwell covers or pulp fiction covers. Now it is virtually impossible to get that done. The default always pushes back towards cartoonish, childish stuff, big heads, large eyes, narrow waists on people.

This is so sad. Especially with all the months and months of work put into experimenting with and trying out prompts. Now you can get a good working prompt and two days later it produces lousy images. Can't be counted to work again. And all the work, time and effort put into making hundreds of good working prompts is all down the drain. And I surmise that when** yet another upgrade** is introduced, any prompts that work well now, will also end up being useless. Constant unasked for change ruins good things.

Yes, I too would be willing to pay IF the older model were reintroduced, the model prior to Jan 2026.

I am experiencing exactly the same disappointing results. Used to be I could generate really outstandingly different results than on a run-of-the-mill AI generator that made virtually nothing but cartoons, anime and manga. The previous version of perchance allowed for great looking Art Deco, vintage pulp covers, academic and social realism images resembling real artistic results and so on ... something else than cartoon anime. Now it is almost nothing but cartoonish stuff, very unrealistic. I've also read in other comments that Perchance no longer uses Stable Diffusion, though what that exactly means is somewhat beyond me, only that it now gives different results, very very different results. A real shame because up till a few weeks ago (almost a month now I think) Perchance was truly outstanding and different.

The version from Aug 2025 to Jan 2026 was amazing and allowed rendering of images in very beautiful artistic academic styles (Art Deco, Beaux Arts, Social Realism, Impressionism etc etc), without images looking cartoonish or anime. That can be done on virtually any AI platform.

As for getting spooked. The new version now working gives just as 'spooky/erotic' content as before. That hasn't changed. But the difference is simply in the artistic quality. Not every image has to be a cartoon or manga/anime. True artistic realism is hard to find on AI platforms. I don't know why this preference and pushing towards anime/cartoon stuff.

It is so utterly sad to see that gone.

The update of August 2025 up till a few weeks was superb. It produced artistic looking images in a variety of serious academic styles that I have never seen elsewhere. Beautiful realistic beaux arts, belle epoque realism, art deco, vintage pulp art, art nouveau, modern realism, gouache, watercolor's or even fine colored pencil and so on.

There was finally the possibility of creating images that weren't only anime, manga or cartoons like in all of the run-of-the-mill AI platforms. Finally a truly artistic rendering platform.

And now, no matter what I try, it's as if two or three steps backwards has been taken. Impossible to render anything serious anymore. I just don't understand why these present changes were implemented.

I would love to find one too and I have been searching. Nothing comes up though.

I don't understand why the change in results. used to be it was possible to create wonderful painting styles, realistic, Beaux-Arts, academic, vintage pulp, Art Deco or realistic looking old photos etc and now the results are so childishly cartoonish as to be useless. The same as on any other run-of-the-mill AI generator.

I simply do not understand why the wonderful quality that set Perchance apart is seemingly abandoned. The update that was implemented begin August 2025 was superb. Why degrade now?

Is this a temporary thing or a long-lasting change? Leave well enough alone.

I am having the same problem. I obviously save prompts that have been giving excellent results, but yesterday (Jan 21) no matter which prompt I used, they all gave comic/cartoon results while ignoring about half of the parameters given in the prompt. No matter which art style is chosen, the results are always so cartoonish and far off with the details/settings etc given in the prompt.

I don't understand why there are such utterly different types of results these last days/weeks. No matter what option you use for an art style, results always seem to tend towards the same types of imagery, too much shiny, glistening AI comic book figures. The update from Aug 8 gave wonderful results in all kinds of art styles with many great looking results. Why this constant updating?